At first sight, it may look like a comedy thriller from the late sixties, in the line of GAMBIT. And Bryan forges was not a real crime film maker. And Michael Caine was for this kind of British heist movies the same Gary Cooper was for westerns. So, I repeat, this film is not a comedy. It's a drama thriller with some romantic involvements. The heist sequence is a pure jewel, thanks to the terrific editing that reminds a little the Godfather trilogy, a couple of years later, concerning the climaxes sequences. And don't forget the John Barry's score, and the Sirley Basset song too.An underrated must see.

One of countless heist films that came out in the 60's, this one throws in the added kink of a homosexual mastermind (Portman) who's married to a much younger woman (Ralli) as they recruit Caine to pilfer diamonds from a millionaire's mansion. Portman sends Ralli to Caine as his emissary, knowing that her charms will be more likely to win him over to their cause than if he did the task himself. Before they will even attempt to steal the diamonds from millionaire Buck, they make Caine do a trial run on another wealthy victim. In an elaborately presented (and a bit over-long) sequence, a guitar concerto rages on, inter-cut with scenes of Caine breaking into an estate and dismantling a wall safe. (Hilariously, the rich couple gets all dolled up and is escorted to a concert hall where, after ONE NUMBER, the audience filters back out and the couple returns home! No dinner. no drinks. No dancing. Nothing!) Various implausibilities crop up during this sequence which are covered up in some cases by cutting to the concerto at key moments. Legendary film composer John Barry appears as himself as the maestro at the concert hall. Keen eyes will note that he steps on the guitarist's dress as they come out to bow. After this admittedly interesting scene, the film devolves into a lot of mishmash and sketchy ruminations as Caine starts to fall for Ralli and Ralli begins to discover that there's far more to her husband than the fact that he's older than her and gay. Some of this is veiled and some of it is spelled out. All of it is pretty tedious. The film suffers from lack of focus and overly generous editing. Inexplicably thrown into the mix, though she does have a couple of entertaining moments (perhaps some for the wrong reasons!) is Newman as a flirty woman who happens to worm her way into Buck's mansion the night of the big steal. The film is full of "arty" directorial touches, one being the increasingly annoying habit of putting inanimate objects in the foreground or otherwise obscuring the participants of the scene through rails or grates. Caine does what he can with a mediocre script. Ralli has a striking look, not that dissimilar from Natalie Wood at times, but without Wood's charisma. Portman speaks with such a garbled accent that not too many of his lines come out intelligibly. Apart from some nice settings and a few arresting sequences, this has to count as a misfire. It does, however, have a hooty "faux" James Bond theme performed by Shirley Bassey and composed by John Barry, who collaborated on three real Bond themes over the years.

I knew if I came to the IMDb there would be the usual litany of "neglected gem" "undiscovered masterpiece" "not as bad as you've heard" that every bad and awful movie seems to get. No comprende, I'm afraid. This thing was critically lambasted and the public that bothered to see it hated it. Why? Because it STINKS. Bad script, pretentious and unnecessarily arty direction, a terrible performance by its female lead, and I could go on but why bother. This is part of a three Caine DVD release from Fox, and they're three of the worst movies ever made - I'm sure when I go look up the other two - Peeper and The Magus - that there will be more of "neglected gem" "undiscovered masterpiece" "not as bad as you've heard" from the great unwashed or the film school pedants. I mean, sorry, this is a BAD movie.

After seeing this, I could be persuaded why Caine's is so well known for making dud decisions as to the choice of his films. While comparisons are inevitably made with the earlier and strictly played for laughs Gambit, this is a thief movie with no humour whatsoever and as the film progresses from intrigue to jealousy, and then from drudgery to death.Overdirected? Most critics say so, but in the main, this was one of the aspects I most liked about the film. An early scene where Caine talks to the a youthful Leonard Rossiter can be noted for the lack of any shot of them both together in conversation. Others however, are sheer melodrama and should never have made it to the final cut.Interesting for early Caine fans only, as thereafter the attractiveness fades and only the director, Bryan Forbes, nice man as he is, can really be left to carry the can, so to speak. Speeding to a climax which is just plain odd, the film rather leaves too much detail unexplained. While it appears easy to fill in the gaps, not enough time elapses between the final revelations and the dramatic close, to believe that not one of the characters could have really thought sensibly about all of this, and therefore not taken such drastic actions. Bewildering though not without charm.